Site Tips
The following are tips on using this web site, but many apply to
web sites in general.
These are not recommendations or endorsements, but are meant to
provide information if you need help. You are in charge of your
computer and its software; the following is for your information
only.
Page Index
Maps | PDF Reader
| Large File Sizes | Web
Browsers-General | Web Browsers
- New Window
Maps
Maps pose interesting challenges as they often contain much graphical
detail and are designed for printing on large sheets of paper.
Many of our environmental projects have maps that fall into this
category.
When viewing a map on the screen with Adobe
Acrobat, use the zoom in and zoom out functions to view a particular
section of the map.
Printing on 8.5" x 11" paper, a map
which was designed for a larger sheet of paper, usually results
in an image which is greatly "shrunken" so it fits the
paper's dimensions. If you need a full-sized hardcopy, contact
the project leader to obtain a printed copy.
Another Display Option - An option for maps
that are not displaying correctly in Internet Explorer/Adobe Acrobat
is to download/save the file to your hard drive and view it with
Adobe Acrobat Reader alone - without the Internet Explorer (IE)
web browser. It seems particular versions of IE and Acrobat do
not display maps well when asked to work together.
Lastly, you may need to refresh the Adobe Acrobat
Reader screen if a map does not fully display - sometimes the
label backgrounds look "transparent" instead of white
because the Reader does not fully display the image the first
time.
Back to the Index
PDF Reader
Many of the documents on this website are in PDF (portable document
format). The most well-known reader for pdf's is Adobe Acrobat
Reader. Like your web browser, it is recommended that you have
a recent version. Older versions cannot read the documents as
well.
Adobe Acrobat Reader Tips - For helpful hints
on how to use the features within the Adobe Acrobat Reader, you
can view the Kootenai
NF's helpful information.
Display - If .pdf maps are not displaying properly
(lacking color or other features for maps, for instance) and you
are using Internet Explorer (IE) as your web browser, you may
need to set the Adobe Acrobat Reader so it works independently
of IE. The Adobe web site has some information on how "Configuring
the browser to open PDF files in an Acrobat window" at: http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/98fe.htm.
Consult the Adobe web site at http://www.adobe.com/
for more information on any other question related to the Adobe
Acrobat software.
Back to the Index
Large
File Sizes
"Large" depends on your computer's capability so this
tip is relative to what you are using to view the Internet.
A 2 megabyte file may take a very long time to download for viewing/saving
if you have a slow modem connection or minimal memory for instance.
But that same file may be a piece of cake for someone with a DSL
or wireless connection and plenty of memory.
If the file you want to view is "large" then you may
want to download the file to your hard drive (if you have the
disk space) before viewing it.
Back to the Index
Web Browsers
- General
It is good to have the most current version of
your web browser whether it is Netscape, Internet Explorer, Mozilla,
Opera or any other web browser. Please visit the web sites of
these products to download the latest copies of their software
- most web browsers are free.
In general, older versions of web browsers cannot display web
pages as well as new versions can. Web browsers such as Netscape
and Internet Explorer have versions 4.x and earlier which cannot
fully display today's web technology.
Back to the Index
Web
Browsers - New Window
If you want a link to open in a new window in
Internet Explorer, hold the shift key down while clicking the
link.
|